Single Malt vs Pure Malt?

Question

Can anyone explain the difference between a single and pure malt whisky to me.

Answer 1

It's simple: Single Malt whisky contains only ONE malt whisky.
Pure Malt contains two or more malt whiskies, but NO grain whiskies. So Pure Malt is a BLEND of several (more than one) malt whiskies.

Answer 2

This has been a lot of confusion and controversy about this.

Traditionally there were blends - a blend of malts and grain whiskies from different distilleries, blended to get a consistent flavour, i.e. the normal everyday Scotch.

Then there were single malt whiskies, one single malt whisky from a single distillery.

Then one particular distiller who had a succesful single malt and couldn't keep up with demand started combining malt whiskies from different distileries. No grain, all malts, but a blend. These were labelled Pure Malt, others copied and used terms like Vatted Malt

Now the industry has decided a term for this type of whisky. The Scotch Whisky Association has laid down that ‘Blended Malt Scotch Whisky’ will be used to describe this type of whisky and you will not see 'pure malt' used in future.

Answer 3

Single malt whisky
Single malt whisky, is an alcoholic beverage which is distilled at a single distillery, and which is 100% from a single type of malted grain, traditionally barley, although there are also single malt rye whiskies. Most single malt whiskies are distilled using a pot still. Single malts are produced all over the world, but the best known single malts come from Scotland.

Pure malt whisky or vatted malt is a blend of malt whiskies from different distilleries. The term “Pure Malt” was coined to suggest exclusivity but it really just means that the bottle contains no grain whiskies. Clearly all Scotch malt whiskies are by definition pure malts or 100% Scotch malts. This is not to say that pure malts are inferior. Once again the master blender can marry together a number of malts in various quantities to produce a distinctive whisky with its own character and traits.

Answer 4

I believe that single malt IS pure malt as there is only one malt involved. Blended malt whiskey's and scotches have a mixing of different malts to obtain a certain color or flavor. Now sour mash whiskey{Jack Daniels} is a different type altogether, have no idea on the differences there {with the exception of the taste}

Answer 5

Pure (or vatted) malt is made from single malts coming from separate distilleries but does not contain grain whisky.

Answer 6

Single malt refers to a whisky that's made exclusively of malted barley and distilled and bottled at one distillery.

Pure malt means that it's exclusively malted barley, but can be a blend of malt whiskies from a variety of distilleries.

Answer 7

Pure Malt Whiskey

Answer 8

most whiskeys
are blended for flavor and aroma

a single malt in unblended

a pure malt is only one batch or malt

Answer 9

I get this question about pure malt whisky from time to time, and tend to reply directly. But I have seen a ten-year-old post on Yahoo with the same query, followed by a bunch of replies, most of which are way off the mark. So here is a public answer.

The term “pure malt” was used throughout the twentieth-century, in a manner synonymous with “single malt,” meaning the bottle contained 100% pure malt whisky made at the same distillery. And it was likewise used to refer to “single cask” whisky as well.

At times, however, “pure malt” was used in place of “vatted malt,” which meant a blending of whisky from various distilleries, yet still consisting entirely of pure malt whisky. The term vatted whisky was recently replaced with “blended malt” in official capacities within today’s standardized whisky industry.*

For example, a label reading “Dewar’s Pure Malt Whisky” from the early 1900s would contain a vatting of various single malts from different distilleries.

But since commercially available single cask whisky and vatted whisky (with no grain spirits) were uncommon after the First World War, the term “pure malt” almost always meant what we today call “single malt” i.e. a bottle of malt whisky made all in the same distillery, but likely a mixture of various casks.

The term “single malt” was used from time to time since the 1800s, but it did not come into vogue until the 1980s. Up until that time, “pure malt” remained the common term in Scotland, while “single malt” and “all malt” were used more rarely, and were more frequently seen on export labels in America.

I suspect it was United Distillers (now Diageo) that started using the term in a uniform manner, primarily for whisky being exported overseas.

Examples include Auchentoshen from the early 1970s, which say Pure Malt, while the distillery’s label in 1977 says Single Lowland Malt. That same year, the label on a bottle of Mortlach, another Diageo brand, said Highland Malt Whisky, shortly before it changed its label to Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

But really, all of these terms are relatively new.

For most of the century, if the brand on a bottle of single malt whisky was that of a regional re-seller who did their own bottling, it was likely to say All Malt, Pure Malt, or Single Malt. But anything like an official distillery bottling would simply say Scotch Malt Whisky.

Sometimes the name of the region was included. Here follow some examples:

“Pure Highland Malt Whisky,” was seen on Macallan labels from the mid-1950s.

A bottle of 1890s Ardbeg says “Fine Old Islay Whisky: Specially selected & Fully matured pure malt.”

Meanwhile, Laphroaig from the same period said simply “Islay Malt Scotch Whisky.” But exported Laphroaig often added “Unblended” to the title later on, probably due to the propensity for blended scotch being shipped to America.

A bottle of Springbank from 1960 says “Cambeltown style Scotch malt whisky made from 100% pure malt.”

Both Wm. Cadenhead Ltd. and Gordon and McPhail used the term “Pure Malt” on their independent bottlings of single-cask malt whisky well up into the 1980s.

However, they tended to use the same language that the distillery of origin used. So a Cadenhead bottling of a Glenlossie – Glenlivet from 1978 says Pure Malt Whisky, while a Cadenhead single cask bottling of Springbank from the same era says simply Campbeltown Malt Scotch Whisky.

It seems the more traditional the distillery, if they were not under the Diageo umbrella, the longer they took to start using “single malt” on their labels.

And that is one man’s word on…
Pure malt whisky and its meaning(s)

* The creation of “blended malt” as an official designation was almost certainly done to confuse blends of pure malt whisky in the mind of consumers with “blended whisky,” which can contain up to 90% grain spirits and still be called “scotch” if it is distilled in Scotland. Blends typically have 40% pure malt whisky mixed with 60% grain whisky, which is considerably less expensive to produce, while also being considerably less flavorful.

** The use of “– Glenlivet” in the previous instance referred to the traditional name for the whisky producing region now called Speyside.